Checking in on the Weatherization Assistance Program

There were two recent updates, one federal and one local, on the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) program as funded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Federally, the Congressional House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations recently had a hearing on the status of Recovery Act Spending by the Department of Energy (DOE).

The GAO testified at the hearing: “DOE officials told us that as of December 2010, about 330,304 homes had been weatherized nationwide, or about 56 percent of the approximately 590,000 homes currently planned for weatherization. All of the recipients submitted their quarterly data to FederalReporting.gov and, for the fourth quarter of 2010, reported approximately 15,391 FTEs had been funded by the Recovery Act under this program.”

In comparison, Texas had weatherized at 58 percent of planned units as of December 2010, roughly tracking the national rate, and is now reporting 25,164 units weatherized, 75 percent of the 33,908 units in the original production plan.

Locally, TDHCA recently announced a reshuffling of WAP funds between recipients. This reshuffling is intended to ensure funds are allocated to recipients with the capacity to utilize the funds by the 2012 federal deadline.

Below is a summary of the five WAP recipients with the biggest voluntary funding reductions and the five WAP recipients with the biggest increases in funding. The full list of proposed changes is available here.

In testimony at a WAP hearing on fund movements earlier this month, TxLIHIS encouraged TDHCA to reallocate funds, where possible, to serve the same geographical area of the original recipient. In areas with multiple recipients, such as Dallas, TDHCA appears to have done so. However, in counties with a single recipient (such as Wichita), funds appear to have been shifted to other areas in the state. While this is better than Texas losing the funds entirely, it is unfortunate for unserved-yet-eligible households in the originally assigned geographic regions.